Crop Dusting Copter

I have this crazy idea of building a crop dusting copter. It could be multi purpose vehicle but spraying all kinds of crops on those huge fields drives me crazy :) It could also pretty nicely fall into the concept of precision agriculture when first you do NDVI mapping and immediately you start spraying with variable rate thus saving some input costs. To save time and do faster spraying of large fields there could be several of these copters flying simultaneously. I know this is not new so far but there are few planned improvements :

- Pixhawk with 4G/LTE telemetry running control from cloud SW - fully automatic control

- electric propulsion system saving operational costs to minimum

- continual refuelling of pesticide tanks based on preprogrammed sequence (1 copter per minute etc.)

- use sonar or radar to automatically control 2m flying height above vegetation

One may continue to optimize, be creative here but enough for now. It's just an idea anyway. The disadvantage of this concept is obviously the low battery endurance due to high payload (min. 20kg). But batteries can be changed quickly. Now use multlikopter or helicopter ? If multicopter, which one ? 6 or 8 motors ? Which frame ?

The only multicopter with such payload I could find : http://kopterworx.com/shop/rtf-ready-to-fly/rtf-hammer-x8-20.html

All other options include helicopters with gas engine :

http://rmax.yamaha-motor.com.au/

http://aoxinbio.en.alibaba.com/product/1194534807-219161662/Crop_automated_spray_Pesticide_helicopter_UAV_Drone_.html

http://aeroscape.en.ecplaza.net/agricultural-acon-h-gps--343560-2703078.html

Yamaha has 20 years of experience with this. But you cannot buy that copter and they fly manually..

So what do you say ?

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Replies

  • Is their a guide to build a gas powered UAV to spray crops ?

  • Check out the new Facebook group on spraying . Mostly covering USA . A Yamaha copter dealer belongs to this group.

  • Guy Compton why you don't feel comfortable releasing the details of the setup?

    • Legal reasons.

  •   Rob_Lefebvre can you releasing the details of the setup for 700 or 800?

  • Guy Compton what you mean Pixhawk no problem ,pixhawk can installed on ag210?

  • I found DJI Ace One Autopilot Installation video (720p) that  DJI Ace One can installed on gas helicopter,I think pixhawk install on gas helicopter is possible

  •   Rob_Lefebvre Pixhawk on an 800-size gas-powered helicopter is great, I want install pixhawk on gas-powered helicopter can you help me?

  • can ag210 use pixhawk?

  • Moderator

    You should look into Drone Deploy for 4G LTE Telemetry for Pixhawk.  I'm in their explorer program and testing it now. It works with their very simple web applications for agriculture.  

    I'll let you know how my testing goes, as I only just received it and have not tested it flying yet, but expect to this week.  

    Maybe for an airframe you might consider a VTOL combination airplane/multi-copter.  

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